Mini Gears increases capabilities with Höfler Helix 400K gear grinding machine

With its expertise in gears and sprockets the company used to manufacture into this market up until the mid 90s when high insurance premiums curtailed the production of fast road going cars. Mini Gears had been very successful in dealing with such companies as Lotus Cars, Cosworth, Rolls-Royce, McClaren, TVR and many other smaller private companies who supplied to the specialist automotive industry. "We are approximately eight times bigger than when we originally did this work and we have been able to invest in some very high tech equipment which is needed for this particular market," explains Paul Darwent, chairman of Mini Gears / Components Worldwide. "Over the last three years we have invested heavily in more specialised CNC equipment, including three Mazak Integrex 5-axis multi-tasking centres, to deal with lower volume batch production since all the high volume, labour intensive work has emigrated to a wide number of low cost countries. We have adapted the business from high volume to medium / low volumes and are focusing on producing high precision components where accuracy, noise and high performance are critical to the finished product." To complete its production capability it has recently installed a Höfler Helix 400K with full CNC control for specialised gear grinding operations for small to medium volume requirements which is widely used in the autosport industry. The benefits of manufacturing on a Höfler Helix 400K gear grinding machine are that it has a low tooling cost and is quick to set up from one job to another as the grinding wheel can be trimmed / dressed on the CNC controlled machine to achieve a huge range of gear pitches without having to order specific grinding wheels associated with high volume production machines. Also, special gear forms can be programmed and tested which is very helpful with new designs or enhancing the performance in industries such as autosport. With all the equipment in place and 44 years of gear cutting experience behind them Mini Gears is well positioned to meet its customers' requirements.